Easter Day

My girls actually let me snap a few pics while waiting for their baskets.
A form of bribery Im sure, but a moms gotta do what a moms gotta do!

I just love these girls!

Bubbles!!!
HA
We had fun with our baskets for a few minutes before we had to prepare for 30+ Cosby's to partake on our house...
oh and try to stop the flood in our basement.

We had no clue what the next few days would look like!

After an amazing lunch and time with family the rain held off long enough for the kiddos to egg hunt outside. I think I was more excited than the kids. We tried to hide the eggs on the perimeter of our house so the kids didn't have to venture in the mud much.

These are my two faves. Leah's showing off her find. And Ayla's determination face haha
Noah, Ayla, Leah, and Jackson... I think haha Its hard to tell the twins apart unless I can look right at their faces. This was my attempt at trying to get some of the cousins together. I remember pics like this as I was a kid. Completely candid and not every child looks at the camera, etc. It is what it is!

..

We had such a blessed Easter. So many families coming together and sharing life. I wish we could do it every weekend :) I know the flood the next day kinda overshadowed my feelings, but I think when we look back we'll still have fond memories!

Life 365: The Flood and making up for it!

Easter day we woke up to a flood in our basement. Our basement is newly fully finished... sigh.
We were getting ready to house 30+ ppl in said basement. ha

Luckily, we didn't realize how bad it was going to get.

The next day we got it.
Jeff had to take the day off work and bring a crew over to figure out a solution.

A couple new holes in our yard and fixes found and fixed.
SO GLAD!

We are so blessed that Jeff works for Boyds. I can not say that enough :)
For 2 days straight I vaccummed our carpet every 30min to 1hr. Woah.
Now carpet is almost dry completely and we've got the girl's bday party here on Sat.

Since I was consumed with vac/flood I didn't spend much time with girls and feel bad.
To make up for it we made homemade soft pretzels!
YUM.

Pretty sure I ate 4.
Have a happy sunshine day!

Happy Easter 2011

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter :)
I know we did!

Special Days

Easter prep has been consuming my life lately. I know my family doesn't truely care if my house is messy or dusty or they step on cheerios, but its just how my Mama taught me. You prepare for guests, and stress, and fuss. Period.

I don't know if I have said this before, but Easter is my favorite holiday. I just love the renewal of it all. Spring is fresh, grass is green, etc. We are all loved by a man who was beaten and laid on a cross to die so that we can be free. Its crazy. And amazing.

We are hosting 30+ crazy Cosby's at our house to celebrate and I am super pumped. Tables are set up. I cut flowers and made lots of goodies! I guarantee I will gain 5 pounds. But that is ok.

This is only 1 fantastic yummy coming out of my kitchen.

PS. Id like to wish my sweet nephew a happy 10th Birthday! We spent the day with him at Big Splash. We just love that place and my little fish do too :)

Life 365: Thankful Thursday

We are thankful for so much...

Thankful for trees to swing on, even if we are the hillbillies in the neighborhood with the pantless child. Cmon anything for potty training!

Thankful for craft time and teaching my children to give gifts and not expect anything in return.

Thankful for 50% flowers at WalMart because these babies need a home to cheer up too!

Thankful for my two daughter's loving hearts.

Today Ayla kept talking about the Easter bunny and kept going on and on. Finally, I stopped and asked her if she knew why we celebrated Easter. She said, "Yes, Mom, because Jesus died because he loves us". Perfect. Moments like that just stick to me. Recognizing why I stay home with the girls and how much they soak up from me daily.

Taking the plunge!

Today we swam with some buddies. It was amazing. Of course, I forgot my camera! But a good time was had by all. A friend of mine brought her blog books to show me and a few friends. My intentions with starting this blog July 2008 was primarily as a journal.

See, I can not scrapbook... though I have a hidden desire to be good at it. Plus, who can afford that. Financially or Time? Regardless, this blog has been treated as my own little journal of life. Some things I tend to not share. Or I go through periods of bloggers block. But, I am super excited to see how it turns out.

My friend's books were gorgeous. She is a wonderful photographer and mommy, too :)

So, here it is... past midnight and I am trying to get it just right. Its a fairly easy process if you dont have pictures on a different computer. ha Three years ago is a looong time to go back! It was so fun to see all the pictures and remember what we were doing at that time in life.... under construction, owning 2 homes, decisions of whether to be a full stay at home mom, preparing for baby #2... so many wonderful life changing things happened in this first edition of my blog.

My plan is to take the plunge and print 2008 & 2009 now. Maybe 2010 if I can talk Jeff into it!

So excited...

Life 365: 105 & 106

So Leah's bday came and went. We found out she had an ear infection, saw a movie, and attempted to potty train that weekend. Woah.

Since this was one of the first and only non-busy weekends we had planned, and mother nature kept us indoors, I woke up and thought "let's try to potty train Leah" HA Not sure what I was thinking other than these facts...

105:

1. I trained Ayla in 2 days and she has had 1 accident EVER. None even while training- true story. So I assumed I was some kind of potty whisperer.

2. She is dry through the night and tells me when her diaper is wet (most of the time).

3.Apparently, I like a challenge.

LOONG story short(er): Not now.

We went 3 days cold turkey, no diapers (just like with Ay) expect at bedtime. She was SO clueless. She went along with most of our commands, but I could tell was getting frustrated with the non-stop discussion of potty and sitting and nothing happening. Day 2 I took a shopping day with my mom (awesome) and Jeff took over. He tried his best while completing tasks outside, but it was a flop day. Today, Day 3, was much better. She did actually sucessfully pee on potty once in am. But several accidents happen through the day. Even though I felt like her tush was glued to seat.

I am super proud of her. I feel like I got the wheels turning. But, I also feel like her heart isn't in it. I am guessing soon she'll be wanting to wear those big girl panties again! We are going to keep the potty talk up and encourage it. I will go back to my same method again when she seems like she is more ready.

106

As for life outside of potty world... I stare at my cake reminents alot. YUM We are crazy running around doing so much or I am here doing all the normal stuff squished in. Dance recital prep and other things are consuming my brain.

Is it sad that I am already looking forward to the weekend ha?

104: Happy 2nd Birthday Leah Hope!

Today is my little one's birthday. I am so proud to be her mama. :) I will do a post just for her soon, but for now. Just wanted to give her a quick shout out. Mama loves you, Leah!

Today she woke up out of sorts, and I knew something was up. Ran to MD (we love our ped) right ear was buldging- so she's now on antibiotics. ha So far we're not letting it slow us down. Its been over a year since girls on antibiotics! That is saying alot for us.

103: Friends, Treats, & Playtime

I love that my girls are at the age where they look forward to playing with friends. One of Ayla's besties came over for a couple hours to play the other day. They are at a funny age where they seem so big and so small at the same time. We play all sorts of things. Picked apples out of our (imaginary) orchard. We made rice krispie treats

and when it was time to divulge in our treats we shaped them into crosses and talked about Jesus and Easter.

I look forward to Leah getting friends now. Wonder who she'll cling to?

102: Soccer?

So Ay's first soccer game was the other day. I wasn't sure how she'd do. We walked up, she was hugging my leg. At one point before the game Libby (coach) was holding her. Why? So after a "pep talk" she did it.

No worries. Ran like the wind- or at least that is what we tell her. hehe Something about a little kid.. I don't know.. they love to hear they are fast. And I like to tell them that :) She is not naturally agressive and I am fine with that. She hung outside the pack and ran in circles around them. It was precious.

Those were pics to prove she did touch the ball though. hehe Don't mind my weird coloring on last pic. I was switching through setting and realized that she was about to kick it in and went with it. A memory is a memory no matter how pretty it looks haha

Just Because

Just because my pal, Jen, has been having contractions.

Just because I love eggs and cheese.

Just because I love you.

Here is my quick version of break-fast casserole....

PS: I have a super rockin' version of "real" breakfast casserole, but this is a good substitute.

You'll need:

Eggs

Milk (splash)

Cheese

Sausage, cooked

Bread

salt, pepper, pinch of sugar

Go butter up a muffin tin. Beat up eggs in a bowl with a splash of milk, pinch of sugar (just a tad- trust me), s&p. Take a couple slices of bread (we had 12 grain) and cut a little shape out to fit into bottom of each tin. Fill up as many muffin slots as you want. (I used up my last 4 eggs and made about 7 muffins) Sprinkle sausage on top of bread bottoms then pour egg mixture on top. Top with cheese and bake.

I baked mine for about 10min 350 deg. Just watch them. You'll see them start to brown up and form cute eggy muffins. Delish!

Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Jennifer :)

Part 2: 98-101

Could it be true? Will I really be caught up after this? YES!

98: Making out a list of baby gifts to be wrapped. I usually buy gifts and store them in my entry closet until time to wrap or event. Now said closet is full of bags and boxes ha :) Ps. Don't discriminate against my cmas paper. Paper is paper!

99:Build your own shortcake night. Enough said.

100: First time taking girls out to our new property. It is investment land. Really nice. Lots of farm, 4wheeler trails, etc. Great for exploring...

101:Lovely. Trying to decide whether to go back on a diet again. I really don't want to, but I know I need to get some more weight off. Ugh

Catch Up Part 1... 93-97

For those of you who have abandoned my blog... please don't. Life has been a whirlwing lately. Im still sticking with my project "Life 365" Its' been tough. Its so much faster to upload on FB that I am up-to-date on there. But, as usual my blog is neglected.

So here's my attempt to get caught up.... In installments :)

PS. My Picasa stopped blogging me for me. Which is my some of my posts are losing their pics. Not cool Picasa! Not cool. Having to do this all on my own stinks. Its like inventing the wheel again. I keep waiting for something to happen...

93: First day home from vacation.. hanging, cleaning, laundry, etc

94: Ayla spotted an article written by my grandpa (ay's great gpa) on the paper that night. She needed to "read" it. My gpa is an excellant author and historian :)

95:Flashback to last week.... oh how I miss the ocean and a fresh pedicure!

96: Swimming with friends. This was what we needed, a slower adjustment to being back from vaca haha

97: Breakfast of Champs... an ooy, gooy concoction of egg. Kinda like breakfast casserole, only easier YUM

Check it Out...

Miss Thang is turning 2 on Friday. Blow my mind. Really. Not that she doesn't seem "that big" or "that old" because truely she does. She is very smart.

It just seems strange to me that time has passed so quickly.

She is such a great kiddo. (can't say baby anymore)

She continues to be full of life and amazes me daily how much she already knows in her short span on life. She is communicates way beyond her age socially and verbally.

Friday we will have cake as a family and laugh and celebrate a wonderful 2 years! This year we are having a combined bday party for both girls.

Lots of planning and love is being put into having a great shindig!

More on my baby getting older soon....